Changing the End
by draco453
Summary: Tai meets a mysterious boy who comes from a broken future. A dark force follows the boy and threatens the two worlds.
1. 0 : After to the End

So, I've had a story bounce around my mind for a while now and decided to write it before I completely forget about it.

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon._**

**0****th**** Chapter: After the End**

_Kill. Hunt. Destroy in the name of the King._

The white dragon sniffed the dead ground, catching the scent of his prey. His red cape blew in the arid wind.

"Did you find him?" The digimon's mentor asked. The black armored digimon crossed his arms as his white coat blew in the wind; he stood as tall as the empty buildings surrounding him. He waited for the answer.

"Yes, Sir Gankoomon. I just caught their scent." The dragon, Huckmon, replied.

He charged into the wasteland, and his mentor followed. They pasted the empty land, the skeleton buildings stuck out ominously from the sands. They walked on white stones and sticks that came apart when they stepped on them.

They stopped outside of a large building. The doors had long been decimated, and the windows already dust. "Come out in the name of King Drasil." Gankoomon ordered. A laugh echoed from the dead building. "I have orders as a Royal Knight for your immediate execution." The Royal Knight continued. "Come in peace, and I will make your deaths as painless as possible."

The laughter echoed again. "You have brought this on yourself!" Gankoomon roared, his coat flying from the digimon's fury. His protégée moved away a few feet. "By taking that form, you betray our name. By protecting that _thing,_ you betray our King! Death is the only honor you can reclaim."

Another chorus of laughter emerged. This one cold and mocking. "Honor? Your honor _DIED_ along with the humans whose bones you mindlessly step over!" A shadow appeared in one of the window openings. The figure trained his arm on the Royal Knight.

"Move away Huckmon." Gankoomon ordered. The caped dragon quickly ran a fair distance from his mentor.

**_GARURU CANNON!_**

The figure in the window roared out the attack. Instantly the arm flashed as a blue laser charged out at the warrior. Gankoomon scowled.

**_TEKKEN SEISAI!_**

The Royal Knight yelled out his attack in the same loud tone as he punched the laser with his fist. Oddly enough, the attack scattered the beam in different directions, and the Knight came out of the attack unharmed.

"Is that all you've got?" Gankoomon chuckled. The figure suddenly crashed out of the building and flew through the air. It crashed on Huckmon, holding the rookie hostage at the tip of his blade. "You dirty rat." The Royal Knight growled.

In the fading sunlight in the barren sky, the opposing digimon glared viciously at Gankoomon. He returned with his own stare back at the other digimon's cold eyes. The white and gold shining armor glistened in the sunlight, as opposed to his dark armor. "Let him go, this is between the two of us, Omnimon." Gankoomon said slowly.

Omnimon chuckled darkly as Huckmon struggled under his large foot. "It's Omnimon X now. I didn't think you've forgotten already." The knight said bitterly.

"No." Gankoomon's voice sounded just as cold. "I just didn't want to believe that you would join forces with _it_. This is between you and me."

"I would guess so." Omnimon X said. The knight kicked the rookie away from the building and charged at the other digimon. He retracted his sword and cannon, both were pointless against this foe.

The two digimon exchanged blows, neither one of them could find the opportunity to activate one of their special moves.

**_BABY FLAME!_**

Huckmon had managed to sneak over to the building, and sent out a wave of fire that soon engulfed the building in flames. Gankoomon growled when he noticed that Omnimon X paid no notice to the fire, gave no worries to the thing that caused him to leave the Knights, to leave the King.

"Shouldn't you be worried for that _thing_?" Gankoomon taunted as he tried to hit the other knight. A floating dragon of energy emerged from over his shoulders also threw a punch at Omnimon X.

Omnimon X never looked away from the other mega, but his eyes showed no worry as he guarded against the attacks. "I think you should worry about your own charge."

"What?"

The fire was collected by a figure flying in the sky. The gathered flames formed a great fireball, and the shimmering figure threw it down on the rookie before it vanished like a ghost.

The Royal Knight looked over at the white dragon for a moment. A moment which Omnimon X quickly took advantage of. From his orange draconic hand, the sword appeared, gleaming in the dying sunlight. Gankoomon screamed in pain as the sword pierced through his armor and in rage as Huckmon dissolved away into the fire.

"I'll get you!" The dark armored knight said. "I'll come back and GET YOU!"

"No, you won't." The white armored knight retorted grimly.

**_ALL DELETE!_**

A destructive blue light erupted from the Grey Sword, ripping apart the other knight into bits of data. The data dissolved away from the light, flying far and scattering away, making sure they couldn't reform back into an egg.

Omnimon X sighed with relief, any regret he would have had from his actions had long been eaten by his resolve. He turned to the charred building and retracted his blade once again. "So ends the reign of the once great Royal Knights." He turned to the charred building. "Are you alright?" He asked with concern to the creature inside.

"I'm fine." Replied a voice. A hooded figure walked out of the ruin. "Did you get 'im?"

"Yes, thanks to that distraction." Omnimon X said.

"A Royal Knight taking advantage of a moment of weakness? How dishonorable." The hooded figure said, mocking Gankoomon's speech earlier.

Omnimon X scoffed in amusement. "Come on, this place is useless." He said, motioning to the crumbling building.

The figure climbed onto the digimon's shoulder. "I know. We're almost there too. I can feel it."

Later the two took refuge in the ruins of another building. This one used to be an apartment complex. Omnimon X stood outside while the hooded figure looked through the abandoned home searching for anything useful.

"I found some food." He said to his companion, tossing the digimon some cans through the window. The figure sighed and removed his hood, revealing a human face. "To think someone lived here before… that." The boy said softly. He wasn't any older than fifteen, his brown hair slicked back with a headband to hold it in place.

He opened one of the cans he found, the label long torn away, and took a bite. The boy instantly gagged it out. "I think this is dog food." He choked.

"It is still food." The knight chuckled.

"No, I'm not eating it."

"Come on."

"No."

"Fine, I think I got some fruit in this can. Care for some?"

The boy sighed as he trashed the can of dog food and picked some food from his companion. "Hey Omni, what do you think we'll find there?" He asked, fiddling with a trinket on his neck.

Omnimon X sighed, the same conversation. "It'd better be worth all this trouble." The Knight replied.

The next day, the boy and digimon flew to another area. The boy sighed as they passed large piles of bones, long stripped of flesh from the harsh environment. These were common sights, and the boy couldn't help but feel grim when they passed one or two or twenty.

Eventually, they flew past a broken bridge and into a large island. "This is the place." Omnimon X said. The Knight stood on top of a weathered metal ball. "Be ready, the Devourers will be after us the moment we cross through the gate. Don't do anything stupid."

The boy gave chuckle laced with worries and gripped tightly onto the Royal Knight's cape. Feeling that his friend was ready, Omnimon X raised his draconic left hand, his Grey Sword fully extended. He swung down the blade, cutting out a rift between this world and the Digital World.

The digimon stormed through the gate before it could close. The Digital World was a cold and desolate place. Darkness reigned with only cubic squares formed any distinguishable markings. Rocks and debris floated in the dead world. From the darkness, the boy could see a shadow turning its head their way. He could hear the shadows hissing in anticipation for their meal.

_Digicore_. Whispered the first beast.

First came one or two of the winged beasts, all whispering the same word, then the numbers doubled, tripled, massing together to capture the scarce source of prey. Their call for the knight's digicore bellowed through the empty space.

The boy could feel the red demons drawing closer, their metallic masks splattered with long dried blood, their great wings flying in a crazed pursuit fueled by their lust of data. Omnimon X turned and faced the gluttonous dragons, the Devourers of Life, the DexDoruGreymon.

**_GARURU CANNON!_**

Blue energy ripped through the line of dragons. Hundreds fell, dissolving into data, lost to the void of the Digital World. Thousands more appeared to easily replace the fallen. Omnimon X growled and continued flying across the darkness. Another moment and he would have been overwhelmed.

The boy released one of his hands from the Knight's cape and reached past his cloak and grabbed a memory stick from a case on his belt. He quickly brought it up to a device on his wrist and inserted it. The device flashed with light as a ghostly figure appeared out of the screen. The metallic wolf shimmered when it got overrun by the draconic digimon. Moments later a column of ice appeared between the human and digimon, freezing any dragon close to the attack.

The swarm still erupted from around the wall of ice, some following the moving prey, a number devouring the ice and their frozen companions.

Another shadow loomed in front of them; the core of what was once a large mountain. Near the mountain, the DexDoruGreymon ceased their hunt and flew away in annoyance.

The human and digimon sighed with relief when they saw their pursuers flying away. "Whatever's in here must be important if the Devourers can't come close." The boy inferred.

They found an opening for the mountain and entered into a cavern large enough to fit the knight digimon. Black Gears lie dormant on the cave walls, as dead as the world outside. "What is this place?" The boy asked, the pouch on his belt shuddered. The inner cave was dark, but the glowing stones on the Royal Knight's body emitted enough light for them to see where to go.

Omnimon X looked at the walls with contempt. "Relics from an old legend." He sighed, tracing his hand along the wall of gears.

The pair walked further into the cave until they reached found that the trail split into three different paths. "Where too?" Omnimon X asked, his green eyes staring cautiously at each entrance.

The boy looked at each entrance carefully. He started to move towards the middle entrance, but hesitated. Instead he turned his eyes to the segment of the tunnel that they were in. He noticed that there was a small gear hidden away between the larger ones. His hand twitched closer to the tiny gear when the tunnel resonated with a deep voice.

_DI-GI-CORE!_ The great voice bellowed. Omnimon X involuntarily shuddered.

"Dexmon." He groaned. "Whatever you are doing, hurry it up."

The boy nodded and touched the gear. The black gears roared to life as the walls opened up, revealing another tunnel. Another roar bellowed across the tunnel; the pair quickly entered the path.

They powered through another tunnel of gears, they could see a light coming from the end of the path. The boy heard Omnimon X releasing his cannon, just in case. As they advanced, the light grew harsher and blinding until they passed out of the cavern.

Omnimon X gasped, the boy's eyes widened. A girl stood in the middle of the cave, her clothes decorated with the blue stones that formed on the bodies of X-Antibody digimon. Her hands and legs were bound by the black gears. She looked sixteen, seventeen at most. The girl remained in her frozen state, unmoving, unknowing, not even noticing the arrival of the pair.

"Do you think she's human?" The boy asked. He hasn't seen another human being ever since… _that _day.

He looked at the Royal Knight, who unsheathed the Grey Sword. Another cry echoed across the tunnels, this time the mountain shook violently. "Well, we could wait for the Great Devourer gets us, or we can find out." The Knight raised his draconic arm and skillfully cut away the gears.

The pieces tumbled to the floor, shattering into dark oblivion. The girl shuddered to life. The boy and the digimon saw lines of data and code swirling in her luminous blue eyes. She blinked and stood upright, face to face with the boy.

He felt uncomfortable when she stroked his oily hair with her small cold fingers. "Human?" She whispered. "Are you the last one?" The boy uttered a sad yes. "I see." The girl said knowingly, touching his face, smiling softly as he shivered from the contact.

Dexmon bellowed his wish for Digicores once more as he continued to thrash at the mountain. The girl listened to the sound and sighed. "So this is the legacy of King Drasil." She listened to the roars again. "How far the great dragon has fallen." She sighed.

"Who are you?" The boy whispered, entranced by the luminous girl.

The girl smiled. "I am Norn." She said simply.

Omnimon X gasped and immediately bowed on one knee. "Do not bow to me, dear knight." The girl said. "You will not be of any help unless you stand proudly on both feet." The knight digimon quickly stood up again.

The boy flinched as he remembered some of the conversations that he had with his partner, tales told to pass the time in silence, tales of a being that rival the great beings. A reminder of the king before his descent into madness.

Another shake knocked the boy down to his knees. Norn crouched down beside him. "If you had a chance to change what happened to this world, to prevent all the sorrows that descended on both of our worlds, would you take it? Even at the cost of your life?"

The boy froze, his eyes held a spark of hope. "I would." Anything was better than the constant running.

It ceiling crashed apart and Dexmon appeared above them. Its body emitted a sickly green light under its purple armor. Fearsome silver and red claws ripped open the mountain of gears. The digimon looked down on then with hungry eyes.

Omnimon X sprung up and blasted it a few times with his Garuru Cannon attack. The demonic dragon easily shook off the attacks.

"Let's get started." Norn said as she plucked out a strand of the boy's hair. She began to say a chant that the boy couldn't hear. The sounds of the battle behind him resonated loudly across the cave. He felt something tightening over his body. Dexmon lifted the screaming boy into the air. He fruitlessly struggled in the dragon's grip.

"TAIKO!" Omnimon X roared.

**_GREY SWORD!_**

A crescent of light struck the larger digimon in the shoulder, cutting off the digimon's arm. Norn finished her chant, and a shining blue light enveloped the boy and the arm, causing both to vanish once the light subsided.

Dexmon roared in annoyance as it lunged at Omnimon X and Norn. The digimon grabbed the girl and cut into the dimensional barrier, escaping to the human world.

The Royal Knight sighed with relief as Dexmon roared angrily behind him. "Where did Taiko go?" He asked the girl. She smiled knowingly and looked up to the scarred skyline, where the sunlight broke through the cloud cover.

"In a place where he can create the greatest change." Norn smiled.

* * *

AN: So, Main Characters will come out next time, thanks for reading.


	2. 1 : Prior to the End

Alright. here's the first chapter.

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon**_

**1st Prior to the End**

"What did you say?" A young man with long spiky brown hair exclaimed indignantly. He slammed down his coffee in annoyance. Another man with blond hair chuckled nervously at his friend.

"I said, 'Hey Tai, I have some extra tickets for my concert today and I could give you one if you want it.'" The blond said slowly, wondering what part of the sentence angered his friend.

"Exactly, Matt." Tai said as he took a sip out of his drink. "_A _ticket?" You're making it sound like you're expecting me to go alone."

"So, does that mean you have a date?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow.

The brunette choked on his coffee, his next words suspiciously nervous. "What? No… I could, I guess. But it's mainly the thought that counts."

His friend sighed and finished his breakfast. He slid over two navy tickets. "Remember that I know where these seats are, so you'd better not sell them off again."

Tai scoffed as he took the tickets, putting them gently into his blue and orange jacket. "That was one time, Matt. It was going to go to waste if I didn't."

Matt chuckled sarcastically. He looked at his empty plate and then called for the waiter. "Yes?" The man asked.

"We're done." The blond said.

"Alright then, we'll take your plates."

Tai and Matt piled their collection of plates into a large stack and handed them to the waiter, who handed it to a turtle wearing a blue camouflage helmet.

"Thank you for your service." The Kamemon said as it took away the dishes.

Tai and Matt pooled in their money for the bill. "You guys eat too much." Tai hissed in dismay at the amount and his depleted wallet.

"I'm still hungry." The orange reptile complained next to him.

"Agumon." Tai sighed. His alarm beeped. "Aw man, we have to go."

"Bye guys." Matt and Gabumon waved goodbye. "We should get going as well." The blond said to Tai. "We need to practice for the performance and it'll take a while to get out of town with all of the traffic these days."

"Alright then, we'll see you guys tonight then." Tai said, leaving the table.

They reached the entrance of the diner and waited as a crowd of Gazimon and their partners walked by the front of the store. They caught a glimpse of Tai and Agumon and snickered as they passed them.

The DigiDestined sighed. It had been a year since MaloMyotismon's defeat. Since that time, a majority of humans began to receive digimon partners. In fact, it was rare for someone to not get a partner these days. The integration of the two worlds started rocky in the beginning, a threat here, some activists there, an insane cult or two, but eventually they've reached a point where they could get along towards the mutual benefit for both worlds. Despite the advances, there was an empty feeling in him, the DigiDestined didn't seem as important anymore.

_There's a cost for everything_. He sighed.

Tai and Agumon headed for the park where the DigiDestined had met to celebrate the evil digimon's defeat. During their stroll, they saw children goofing off with their in-training partners, teens debating on which digimon was the greatest, and an adult or two sitting on the bench, reading a paper, with their partner resting next to them.

They stopped at the soccer field where there would usually be a game or two being played there at this time. Today it was empty except for one person and his partner laxly passing a soccer ball back and forth. The short blue digimon overshot the ball, causing it to roll over at Tai's feet.

The person turned and saw him. "Hey, Tai!" Exclaimed Davis, the leader of the newer DigiDestined. Well, leader of the group that was known the newer DigiDestined.

"How are you Davis?" Tai greeted.

"I'm doing great! Do you want to play a round? It's boring when you have to make sure the ball doesn't pop when your partner kicks it."

"That was one time Davis!" Veemon exclaimed.

This started a long argument about Veemon crushing, popping, and deflating most of Davis's balls. As interestingly awkward as it was… "Sorry Davis, but I have somewhere I have to go now."

"Alright then," He turned his attention back to Veemon, "we're settling this with video games."

Tai chuckled as Davis and Veemon raced off. _At least some things never change._ He thought.

The duo resumed their walk in the park. Tai noticed that someone planted a new row of flowerbeds along the path. He smiled as he noticed how sweet they made the air smell. It was like visiting… _her_ shop.

_Sora._ When was the last time she entered his thoughts? Wasn't there a time when she was all he could think about?

_It would be a year ago._ He answered himself. _A time before Christmas_.

_Oh stop mentioning Christmas… I've moved on._

_Whatever dude, it's about time anyways._

"Tai." Agumon said, interrupting his argument with himself. _Rats, I was finally winning_. "Do you think, she'll bring food?"

"You just ate most of my allowance and you're still hungry?"

"You ate half of it though." Agumon complained.

"It was my allowance." Tai grumbled.

"Oh stop whining, Tai. I brought some food for you Agumon." A new person entered their conversation. Tai only noticed that they reached a cross section in the park.

A brown-haired girl smiled as she held up a picnic basket. She put it in her lap and started to roll her wheelchair towards him. Before she moved much, Tai quickly came to her and took up the handles on the back. "Here Rei, let me do that."

"Come on Tai, I can do it myself. I managed to get here on my own just fine."

"Well, I'm here now." Tai said, smiling as he pushed her chair into the grass towards a shady place near the trees as Agumon took the basket from her.

Tai had met Rei a few months back. He was jogging to keep in shape for the next soccer season when her chair had malfunctioned on an incline. Tai tried to heroically stop the runaway chair, only for him to trip and become a speed bump for her instead. Luckily Agumon managed to catch her when she toppled out of her chair. Tai was sure that he got a concussion when he landed on his face, so he couldn't remember who asked the other out, though at this point it didn't matter.

"Let's eat!" Agumon exclaimed as he ran cheerfully under the shade. He hastily opened the basket and a blob of fur rammed into his head. "Ahh, get it off!"

"Gabo." Rei scolded the digimon with its nickname. "Stop that."

The Tsunomon stopped biting Agumon's head and hopped over to Rei's lap. "Sorry Miss, but I had to make sure that _it_ doesn't eat all of the food like the last couple of times." He stressed.

Agumon scoffed indignantly at being called an it and hurled an insult. Gabo blew a raspberry at the rookie. Tai quickly moved to restrain his partner. Looking at the scene before him, he couldn't help but give out a chuckle. Hearing Tai's laughter caused Rei to start giggling along with him. Their digimon stopped their argument and looked at their respective partners, wondering what was so funny. They locked eyes and came to a mutual agreement: Humans were weird.

While the couple was enjoying their day, another person was strolling along the park with their partner and heard their laughter. The DigiDestined known as Sora looked over towards the source of the familiar laugh.

She looked towards the source and noticed Tai and the other girl.

_It's… Tai_. Sora eventually thought, though annoyed at how long it took for her to identify on of her closest friends. She noticed that he was not alone. _I wonder who that girl is._

"Hey, It's Agumon." Biyomon, her partner, exclaimed happily.

"They look like they're busy. We shouldn't disturb them." Sora had started to say, but Biyomon had already reached the group. She saw Agumon giving the pink bird a gleeful hug. Tai noticed Sora and gave her a wave; she saw the girl who was with him doing the same.

"Hey Tai, It's been a while isn't it." She greeted him, then turned to the girl in the wheelchair. "Oh, I'm –"

"Sora Takenouchi." Rei said, shaking her hand. "I've heard a lot about you. I'm Rei Saiba. So, would you like something to eat?"

"Yes!" Biyomon said, quickly sitting next to Agumon in front of the basket, grabbing one of the sandwiches inside.

Sora sighed. "Does that answer your question?"

Tai smiled as Sora reluctantly joined his date with Rei.

_Whoa whoa whoa. A date with two girls?_ The annoying inner voice snickered. _You have some guts man._

_Shut up. They're my friends._

_Sure man, whatever, and that high-pitched wining voice is in your imagination._

"Do you guys hear something?" Agumon said, looking away from the sandwich he had torn into. The sound grew louder and slower, like someone fixed a bad note.

_Told you._

_That proves nothing. _Tai struggled to keep the inner voice silent.

"Where is that coming from?" Rei said, looking around for anything that could be the source of the noise.

Tai looked around as well. He looked up and noticed an eerie light forming above them. A dark shape started to grow inside of the light. "Scatter!" He exclaimed, pushing Sora away from the area, and then lunged to push Rei's chair backwards. Moments after he caused everyone to move away, a large arm crashed out from the blue light.

They saw the arm thrashing viciously, the green skin started to decay into bits of data, its purple armor wildly dug into the ground beneath it, while its silvery claws flailed around, gripping whatever it could and crushing it into a pulp. It rampaged on top of Rei's food for a while before dissipating into shards of data.

"What was that?" Tai managed to say. Even when the Real World had linked up with the Digital World, giant appendages don't usually rain down from the sky.

The blue light continued to glow in the tree tops, something else fell down from the light. The new creature crashed into the hole created by the arm as the light began to fade away.

Tai heard an annoyed groan from the creature. "Where am I? Is this… grass?" The thing stood up, causing the digimon to stand in front of their respective partners. Tai saw that it was a human.

The brown-haired boy stumbled up from the hole and looked at the group. Oddly, he began to chuckle. "Ok, now I know I'm dreaming." He chuckled. Tai saw the boy stumble down on the grass. "That… hurt. This… is real?" The boy clumsily stood up. He paled and stared at the group as if they were ghosts. Then he collapsed again.

Tai advanced forward and felt that the boy had passed out. "We'd better get him to a doctor." He muttered as he lifted the boy's arm on his shoulders. "I guess I'll see you later." The DigiDestined said to Rei.

"Yeah, right." She giggled as she pushed her chair next to him. "Like I'm missing this; this is definitely more interesting than doing my summer homework."

Both of them turned around and looked at Sora. She sighed. "Fine, I might as well help." The red-head heaved the boy's other arm over her back. Looking closely at the boy, she noticed that he seemed vaguely familiar.

They proceeded to move the unconscious boy, who seemed to be having an ominous dream. "They're coming. They're hungry."

If they had remained in that spot for a while longer, they would have seen flecks of purple and green data reforming into an ovular shape. Within moments a small digiegg appeared in the middle of the park. Lacking the heartbeat of a normal egg, it stood cold and alone on the grass. A group of people and their partners walked by the area, chuckling among themselves and making comments on what ripped out a large part of the park's lawn.

A whisper became hidden in the wind; a single word that marked the end of peace. _Digicore_. A crack traveled down the purple and green egg.


	3. 2 : The End Begins

Alright the second installment! Enjoy.

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon!_**

**2nd The End Begins**

"This sucks." Davis groaned as he stumbled down the street. DemiVeemon rested tiredly on his head. "I blame Jun, if she didn't hide my games then I wouldn't have listened to your idea of balancing chairs on our heads" (AN: Do **not** try this at home.) Davis rubbed a poorly bandaged wound in annoyance. The bandages would have fallen apart if not for his

"Those half-naked guys that they show on television hit each other with them all the time." DemiVeemon defended himself.

"They don't use armchairs." Davis groaned. He stopped in front of the hospital. "You think they can stop the bleeding? What if I lose my brain cells?"

"Look on the bright side Davis, I guarantee that you don't have to worry much about that problem." His partner chuckled.

"I guess… hey!"

When the bickering duo entered the hospital, Davis caught a glimpse of an impossibly tall hairdo. He was about to greet his friend when one of the receptionists noticed his head wound and called for some powerful orderlies in white to carry him to the emergency room. As he got dragged away, he saw Tai talking with a cute girl in a wheelchair with a Tsunomon.

Davis struggled to walk by himself, but the men though he was struggling to escape. They put an odorous rag over his mouth and he went out like a light.

* * *

Back in the park one of the group of boys from earlier stomped through the park on the way to their hangout. Their Gazimon partners spooked the little kids from the park, irritated adults, and annoyed other teenagers while they blasted their eardrums out from horrible rap music.

One of the Gazimon noticed an easy target coming from the grassy area. A small in-training digimon scampered randomly on the grass. If the digimon didn't have ill thoughts of bullying the poor creature, he would have noticed that the furry digimon's purple fur was more of a dark blue than the normal Dodomon.

"Aw, are you lost? What a useless digimon. Where's your useless partner?" The foolish Gazimon taunted.

The in-training rotated around, just enough for the Gazimon to see its eyes. The first eye shone with feral amber, and the second in a viral red. His fear emerged too late; the Dodomon lunged at Gazimon the moment it turned. The in-training's iron jaws latched on to the rookie's neck, piercing through his grey fur.

There was nothing that the rookie could do to get the  
in-training off of his body. There was only one option left for him. He screamed. He screamed bloody murder. He screamed out his pain to alert his companions and his partner. He screamed for them to run away, but instead they came closer.

They were all listening to the obscurely loud music when the piercing screams of one of their own ran louder than one of the song's swear words. They stopped the song, rushed over to their friend, and froze in shock.

The Dodomon tore deeper and deeper into the Gazimon's body and tore out a small grey orb. Gazimon collapsed to the ground as the in-training hopped off with the shimmering ball of data. Dodomon crunched on the orb, it flashed black before dissolving into data and assimilating itself into the tiny digimon.

Both changes happened at once. The in-training became cloaked in a dark light and doubled in size, growing stumpy legs. The Gazimon twitched and shuddered, to the dismay of his companions. It stood up and was also cloaked by the dark light. His grey fur changed to navy, a dark blue gem appeared on top of his head, and tiny wings sprouted from his back.

The infected Dorumon and Dorimon looked over at the stunned group with hungry glowing eyes. A sinister drone rang through the air. The hunt had begun.

* * *

Tai sat in the lobby of the hospital, completely bored out of his mind. They had brought the boy in for about an hour already and were waiting for some news. The seventeen year old looked at his friends and found that they were talking to pass the time. Their digimon were also swapping stories.

_Aw man, Sora's telling her the hairclip story_. Tai thought in dismay. Rei had asked Sora about some of the things she knew from being his best friend for so many years. This was one of the many that she told within the time they had waited. If he tried to object in a story, and since his objections tended to be loud, the irritating receptionist threatened to use her thugs in white to kick him out. _She's enjoying my pain isn't she? _He growled mentally as she smirked at him while Rei had closed her eyes trying to suppress her giggling.

_Ah, look at him squirm_. She snickered when she saw how uncomfortable he was with all the stories she had told his girlfriend.

_Girlfriend_. For some reason the word etched itself into her mind. She looked up to the girl who managed to subside her cute laughter. _She is cute isn't she? They seem to look well together._

_Wait, why do you sound so glum?_ She growled at her thoughts. Before her thoughts gave any answer, she noticed a familiar headpiece walking out from one of the halls.

"Hey isn't that Davis?" She alerted them to the arrival of the younger teen.

A mass of white bandages were bound tightly over his head. He had argued hotly with the doctor to allow him to continue wearing the goggles. Davis smiled when he threatened to bang his head on the wall when the doctor said he might hurt himself. Eventually the doctor relented, unwilling to spend more time trying to cover up the boy's mass of hair again.

"Hey Tai!" He exclaimed when he saw the boy. The receptionist gave him a glare, made a shush, then dragged a finger across her neck before pointing at one of the orderlies. He chuckled nervously before walking toward his friends. DemiVeemon hopped off of his shoulder and joined the other digimon in their chat.

"Hi Davis, what are you doing here?" Tai greeted.

"Oh just the usual injuries." Davis said. "So who's the girl?" He motioned to Rei.

Tai opened his mouth, but then hesitated to answer. "My… girlfriend, Rei." He said.

Davis didn't notice Tai or Rei's blushes. He instead whistled and patted Tai on the back. "It's about time." The younger boy chuckled.

The lights in the hospital suddenly flickered on and off ferociously. The receptionists worked quickly to save whatever they could from the computers, doctors rushed from one room to another to make sure that their patients were alright.

"What is going on?" Rei wondered aloud. She had never seen the entire hospital malfunction at once before. Tai, Sora, and Davis were alert. A mass electrical failure either meant that someone was fooling around with the breaker, or some digimon were causing a ruckus.

They rushed over to the glass entrance and looked out in shock. Navy digimon swarmed the streets. People ran from their great jaws. From behind the doors, Tai could hear their hungry chant.

_Digicore. Digicore. Digicore!_

The DigiDestined watched as the police came and tried to handle the situation. A few of them digivolved their partners, some Kunemon, into the Champion to combat the swarm.

**_BROWN STINGERS!_**

**_TWIN SICKLES!_**

The Flymon launched a barrage of stingers at the digimon swarm. Tai watched as the needles impaled and deleted some of the smaller digimon. The Snimon cut more down with their energy blades. After a few shots the larger digimon in the group that had seen the attacks were able to evade the stingers and blades with ease.

**_METAL CANNON!_**

The larger digimon hissed out the attack, and shot metal balls from their mouths. Tai shuddered to see them strike down the Flymon and Snimon with ease. The ones who were hit fell to the ground, where they were swarmed in moments. Tai stood frozen as the screams of the insect digimon permeated the hospital. Sora and Rei covered their ears while Davis looked like he wanted to puke. They saw the swarming digimon devour a large orb that they ripped out of their victims.

"Their digicore." Agumon gasped in horror as one of the digimon assimilated the orb.

Then no one said anything as the fallen digimon stood up again, and soon after became engulfed by dark light. A champion version of the swarming creatures stood in their place. The digimon were mummified in blue strips of cloth. Bolts protruded from their wings, with robotic legs and arms bearing crimson claws slashed the air maliciously. A metal helm masked their faces, their open mouths glistened in a sickly yellow light as their glowing red eyes sought their prey. Sparking wires protruded from their tails, forcing others in the swarm to back away.

"Did anyone else see that?" Davis squeaked. "They rose up… like ZOMBIES! How COOL is THAT!"

"DAVIS SHUT UP!" Everyone yelled, before clamping their hands on their mouths. It was too late, they didn't have to look back to know that the entire swarm of digimon trained their glowing eyes at them. Tai could see their digimon shaking in fear.

"It's DexDorugamon." Agumon whimpered, identifying the champions. "They can hunt down the closest or strongest prey they can find. Their Cannonball and Metal Cast attacks fly with pinpoint accuracy and can rip through a digimon's body like a softball through glass."

"What should we do?" DemiVeemon shuddered as the swarm began to come closer to the hospital.

Tai noticed the police ran away after learning that their weapons were only effective in making the swarming digimon angrier. He couldn't blame them, with their partners as a part of the swarm, there wasn't anything they could do in this situation. Tai acted quickly and barricaded the doors with the waiting chairs. He noticed Sora taking out her digivice and quickly told her to stop.

"Birdramon and Greymon are too big for this place." He warned. "Also, using fire based attacks isn't safe here."

"But Raidramon can easily take them on!" Davis declared. He took out his D-3 and D-Terminal.

In a flash of bright light, DemiVeemon digivolved to Veemon, and in another flash of light Raidramon appeared, yelling out his catchphrase, "The Storm of Friendship".

The wolf-like dragon looked at his partner. "This better not be like those movies you watch where everyone dies and turns into zombies." He growled before turning to the DexDorugamon that crashed through the doors.

Tai pushed the button for the elevator. "Are you kidding me?" Sora exclaimed. "You never take the elevator at times like these! The stairs are safer."

"Right, let's all go and run for the stairs." Tai said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. He waited for Sora to remember about Rei.

"Oh." Was as she could manage to say before giving an awkward blush.

"It's alright." The girl sighed. "You get used to people forgetting after a while."

"HEY! Are we running for our lives or what?" Davis exclaimed while Raidramon shot another Lightning Blade attack to deflect a barrage of Cannonballs. With the awkward mood broken, Tai noticed one of the DexDorugamon had learned to evade Raidramon's lightning and knocked the armored digimon on his side.

"NO!" Davis screamed as he saw the undead digimon raise its crimson claws for the kill. Tai managed to stop Davis from running to his partner.

The older kids flinched, closing their eyes and waited for the screams, while Davis looked away in tears. The screams were loud and ear-piercing. They looked back to the scene and gasped in surprise once again.

The DexDorugamon laid stretched out on the floor, dissipating into data. The others wearily obsereved the new foe. The new digimon stood in front of the winded Veemon, poised to strike it down with its glowing purple energy sword. Its entire body gave jumps of statics, like it was a recording. A weak astral aura enveloped the angelic digimon. The colors weren't as vibrant as usual, instead they were pale and tinted with blue.

"Hey, the elevator's here. Take your digimon and get going." Ordered a weak voice. Tai looked over and saw the kid they helped out leaning on the wall of the hallway. A flash drive stuck out of a silver watch on his wrist. "You have two more minutes to escape while they're distracted."

Tai saw the ghostly ultimate holding of the swarm of champions and rookies. He ushered everyone into the elevator and ran over to help the kid in. Before the doors closed, Tai saw the angelic digimon fade out into blue light, and the undead digimon sniffing for their prey.

* * *

AN: Seriously, The Dexmon seem like the best digimon to be Zombies. Though I used different colors to distinguish from the normal line, it seems more fitting.

Rhyme13kh14Xion8: Thank You for your review! It really made my day and convinced me to put off homework to write this chapter instead.


	4. 3 : Reflections on the End

Here's the next chapter.

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.**_

**3rd Reflections on the End**

Who could have imagined that such an ordinary day could become so horrible?

A young eight year old held his father's hand as they walked down the street of the bustling city. "Do you think I'll get my partner today?" The child asked, his eyes laced with hope.

His father looked down with a smile. "I don't know Taiko." A shadow fell on his father's place. "You'll get one in time. Everyone does, you just have to wait a little longer." That was the answer that his father gave him every time he asked.

"But everyone else has a partner already. I'm always alone."

A sad smile inched across his father's face. "Come on, it's a special day today, so let's forget about Digimon until we meet everyone else."

Taiko sighed and nodded, a smile reappearing on his face. "Alright then!" He boy cheered. "Are we going to visit Mom first?"

His father returned the smile. "We'll go later, but first were going to see some of my friends."

"Ok." Taiko agreed, slightly crestfallen. He fiddled with a silver locket that hung from his neck.

His father sighed. "Don't worry, if you don't want to stay long then we can leave early." The boy smiled at the thought.

Eventually, they met up with his father's friends. Taiko noticed that his father's digimon chatted with the other digimon. He took a deep breath and psyched himself up before joining up with the other children. He usually only saw them on this day, or when his father decided to bring him when visiting their parents. Taiko watched as they chatted about their partners, confident that theirs' was the best. He stood a fair length away from the group, fiddling with his locket.

One of the other children finally noticed his presence and greeted him. Taiko waved and the kid returned to his conversation. He stood there for a while longer, but no one else was interested in talking to him. They were too busy talking about their partners, most of them in their arms or resting on their heads.

Taiko sat down on one of the trees, on the verge of a tantrum. He looked at the adults and noticed that they all had grim looks on their faces, strange because today was usually a day that they celebrated an anniversary that he didn't really care about. He overheard snippets of their conversation. Eventually the kid lost interest in the things that the adults were talking about. What on earth were they talking about anyways? Digicores and lockdowns weren't interesting at all.

He sighed with boredom and rubbed the locket. It seemed like the only thing that kept him sane most of the time. Taiko looked at the blue sky, watching as the clouds formed and vanished. He wondered how long it would take before he could fall asleep. There was one cloud that was shaped like a Chibomon, another cloud that looked like a Botamon, that was a plane, a flock of birds flew in a V formation, a human traveled on his Airdramon partner, a crimson streak of light streaked across the sky, a helicopter with a kitten painted on it… wait.

Taiko watched as the streak widened and stretched across the sky. "DAD!" He exclaimed.

The adults looked up in horror, by then the sky became as red as blood. He noticed that the entire city seemed to be riled up by the red sky, the adults got their partners to become the strongest form they could reach.

Then it happened. A crimson light descended from the sky like a flare and swept across the earth like a broom. The humans flinched, but then noticed that nothing happened to them. They looked in horror when the first screams were heard. Their partners writhed on the ground, screaming in pain and agony. Taiko saw that the other kid's digimon were twitching painfully as well.

"What's happening?" They cried. The adults gave no answer because they ran to their partner's side, with worry gripping thier hearts, wondering what was wrong with their partners.

A screech resounded across the land, like a blast of static. Taiko shuddered at the sight of his father shedding tears over his partner who decayed away into data. At once most of the digimon dissolved away, he saw a round sphere drop to the ground where the digimon used to be.

"What have I done?" Taiko heard his father whimper over his fallen friend.

Another burst of static echoed through the air. The depressed humans looked towards the sky again. Now like great eyes waking, green portals appeared in the red sky. Taiko could see imposing figures flying out of the portals.

"We are the Royal Knights." Echoed several resounding voices. "And under the orders of our king, Drasil, your world is now ours." After the voices stopped, the lasers and chaos began to rain down on the human world.

* * *

Taiko shuddered awake, the memories after that weren't something he wanted to remember now. He noticed that he was in a bed, like the ones when he would sleep in when he and Omni hid in old hospitals; only this one was clean and didn't smell like death.

_Omni._ The boy looked around for his partner but couldn't find the Royal Knight. Taiko's thoughts returned to his dream. _If he didn't appear then._ He blacked out for a moment, then shuddered back, feeling very tired. His thoughs ended there and then he looked at himself finding that he still had his cloths on him.

Noticing his belt, locket, and watch were on the table next to him, he reached over and put them back where they usually were. Taiko compulsively rubbed the locket as he observed his surroundings. He heard a strange beeping sound beside him and gasped when he saw the source. The heart monitor started to bleep even faster.

_How?_ Taiko's thoughts raced. _Electronics have been disabled for years_. An image of the people he saw before he passed out flashed through his head. _Unless._ He looked at the date that was on the monitor and froze, trying to process the information on it.

The electronics flickered violently, knocking him out of his trance. He heard a group of people running around outside when the devices stabilized. People.

Taiko threw out the covers and stepped out of bed. When he did he felt whatever strength he had left him and collapsed to the ground. It was that moment when a collective whisper echoed through the building, one that he heard too many times.

The icy fusion of fear, hate, and confusion gave him a bit of strength to stand up. Taiko stumbled to the door and opened it. He heard the sound of glass crashing apart and attacks being fired one after another from down the hall.

Taiko saw patients and doctors hiding in other rooms and looked at him like he was insane through the cracks in the door. He ignored the looks, he'd seen worse.

The brunette stumbled to the hall and saw a blue four-legged dragon in black armor get knocked down by a DexDorugamon. Instinctively, he reached for his pack and pulled out a random flash drive, inserting it into the device on his watch. It flashed with life, white streams of data raced across the blue screen. The data rearranged itself into a shape and burst from the device in a flash of light.

The ghostly angel quickly combated the demonic dragon, cutting away at its neck until it couldn't handle any more damage. As it dissolved away into black strands of data, the MagnaAngemon readied his blade for another brawl against the remaining creatures.

Taiko looked at his watch; a timer on it quickly dwindled down towards zero. He shuddered, there wasn't any strength left to summon another one. Taiko saw the group of people and saw a boy running for his partner. They didn't notice a small ding; all of them were distracted by the battle. "Hey, the elevator's here." He called out. "Take your digimon and get going. You have two more minutes to escape while they're distracted."

He could feel the darkness taking over again, and he had no strength to resist it. Before he blacked out, the brunette could feel a pair of strong hands helping him up and carrying him away.

* * *

"Dad." A young Taiko stated. His father had returned from work and was in the process of putting away his suit.

"What's up?" He replied. The man gave his partner a pat on the head and walked to relax on the couch.

"I want to cut my hair like those people at the temple."

His father fell off of the couch in surprise. "What! Why?"

"It keeps going into my eyes and then I trip. It's not like it can defy gravity. The people in the temple never fall over because of that."

The man listened to his son's rant and chuckled. He got off of the floor and looked around the apartment for something. An object grabbed his attention and he grabbed it from his desk.

"Here, my friend gave me this. It should help you with that problem."

Taiko held the blue headband in his hands. _The Noodle Carte_ shone on it in silvery English. "Isn't this for girls?" The boy asked hesitantly.

His father scoffed. "Come on, it works right?"

"But Mom wore these all the time." There was long silence between them. "Nevermind." Taiko said quickly. He ran to the kitchen, rinsed his head in the sink, slicked back his hair and kept the mess in place with the band. "It's perfect." He smiled.

# #

The group of nine hid in one of the vacant rooms on the top floor. So far nothing had come chasing after them yet. The mood in the room was dark.

"I'm sorry that you almost got zombified." Davis said to his partner in a sad tone.

"Yeah, you better be." Veemon said in a similar tone.

"But don't worry, if you did I would have no hesitation to delete you."

"Same here... you know, if they could affect humans. Do you think they affect humans?"

Davis shrugged.

"Anyways, where do you think that MagnaAngemon came from? TK's in France right now and it looked like a lot like a ghost to me." Veemon asked.

Davis scoffed. "First zombie dragons and now the Ghost of Christmas?" No one noticed the brunette shudder. "What's next? The tooth fairy?"

"Hey, Tinkermon are evil little brutes." Veemon shuddered.

The only sound that was heard was Sora's phone beeping as she continued to dial people and the boy's soft snores. "Darn it. Something must have happened to the cell towers, I can't get a signal."

"What should we do now?" Biyomon asked.

"We wait." Tai said. They saw the DigiDestined sitting on the chair next to the sleeping boy. "He seemed to know a bit about those digimon before. Maybe he could explain why they suddenly appeared."

He noticed that his partner looked grim. "Hey Agumon, what's wrong?"

The orange digimon looked at the young man. "The DexDorugamon line is only a legend. How can they be here in the first place?"

The DigiDestined shrugged. "It's not like I'd ever imagine that one of my best friends would turn out to be a giant talking lizard. Life can be filled with wierd events like that."

Silence hustled into the room again, but this time the mood felt somewhat lighter. Encouraged by the Tai looked out the window to check on what's happening outside. He paled at the sight. "What are they doing?" The DigiDestined gasped.

The others gathered around the window and watched the spectacle in shock and horror. They saw the lower leveled Dorimon and Dodomon biting and tearing into the Dorumon until there wasn't a strand left of any of the navy digimon. With fear they watched as the cannibalistic digimon flashed with dark light and digivolved into copies of their victims. The newly evolved rookies then turned on the remaining champions, tearing past the blue bandages and ripping past their metal limbs.

Moments later, the swarm had all fully evolved into their champion levels. They looked up with their glowing red eyes and stretched their new wings. A collective roar echoed across the city.

They watched as the swarm split into two groups, one storming into the hospital, and the other flying up towards the roof. Tai quickly shut the binds and made everyone duck down. Several of the DexDorugamon sped past them and they could hear a rampage from above and below them. One hovered by their window for a few dreadful moments before joining the rest of the swarm.

"What is this?" Rei gasped with dismay. She clung tightly to Tai's arm.

"This is how the end starts." A grim voice said behind them. Everyone turned around with surprise. The boy had awoken.

* * *

Alright, some build up and backstory for the next chapter.

Thank You to the three of you for your reviews. They really mean a lot to me to know that someone likes this story.

Until next time : Draco


	5. 4 : Glimpses to the End

Yes! It's finally here. Three Essays, Two Swim Meets, and a MC test can't stop me! [Cue mandatory maniacal laughter]

**_Disclaimer: I Don't Own Digimon_**

**4th Glimpses to the End**

_Digicore_. The single word echoed across the digimon's mind. The DexDorugamon could identify the tantalizing scent of the data clustered within this building. He could sense more cores off of this island, but there was nothing this strong for miles. The members of his half of the swarm smashed through every door in their path, sniffing out the source of the tantalizing smell.

DexDorugamon smashed through one door with his steel plated head. He couldn't help but give the cowering humans a growl or two. The Digimon gave himself an amused chuckled when they flinched and huddled deeper into the corner. It was too bad they weren't made of data, the undead dragon sighed as he flexed his crimson claws threateningly, so having fun with them would be too messy. Oh well, it would be worth the fun.

His hunger pains tore into him again, shooting through his body like lightning. DexDorugamon growled. Fun would have to wait; for now he needed to fill his empty stomach.

* * *

The humans and Digimon turned around and saw that the boy had awoken. "You!" Davis exclaimed as he lunged for the boy.

"Davis what are you doing?" Tai groaned as the younger boy hugged the boy on the bed, sending out cries of thanks for saving his partner. "He'll pass out again!"

Davis released the boy who had frozen unused to the touch of other humans. His eyes darted from one person to another, trying to get a grip on what was happening. A chorus of familiar echoing whispers outside answered his questions for him.

"Hi." Tai said, struggling to gain control of the situation. "My name is Tai Kamiya." He greeted. The boy froze at the name as the rest of them introduced themselves.

At the end of their introductions, the boy got out of the bed and steadily got on his feet. "I'm Taiko." He said hesitantly, unsure of whether he should add more to the intro or not. The sound of doors breaking into pieces echoed from above and below them.

"Rats!" Davis exclaimed. "They're getting closer."

"Of course they are Captain Obvious." Veemon growled in frustration. "Do you have a plan other than throwing me in front of the wolves."

"I just apologized for that." Davis sighed. "Besides they're more like dragons."

"So no plan." Gabo sighed.

"We could obliterate them all by destroying this building while they are all still in it." Taiko suggested.

The group looked at the enigmatic boy in shock at the suggestion. "It'll be easy." The boy continued. "A simple explosion and they'll all be dust and bits."

"But there are still people in here!" Sora exclaimed. "What about them? Are you going to let them all die?"

A memory flashed through him. "It wouldn't matter in a few years anyway." He muttered to himself.

The others didn't hear the remark, as they were busy arguing among themselves. Sora turned to Tai and became appalled with the look on his face, one she had seen before countless times. He was actually considering the idea. "Tai!" She called out to him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"It's not a bad idea." Their leader admitted. There was a collective gasped from most of them. Tai quieted them down before continuing. "Sora is right though, the cost would be too high. We would have to evacuate everyone if we wanted to even think about going through with that."

Everyone flinched when they heard the DexDorugamon coming closer, finally reaching their floor. "Then we have to get away from here." Taiko said fearfully. "Is there any place that could be blown off the face of the earth around here?"

Tai considered the modified plan. "I'm pretty sure the high school is vacant…"

Davis agreed to the plan instantly.

"Can you go through a single day without suggesting to obliterate your school?" Agumon and Veemon sighed.

"Can we have this conversation somewhere else?" Sora groaned, feeling a familiar headache coming back to her. One that she admittedly missed.

* * *

The cores were close, he could smell it. A loud argument echoed through the halls on this floor. One of the other DexDorugamon crashed though some doors, but the argument did not end.

_What Fools!_ DexDorugamon chuckled to himself among his other thought. He advanced ahead of the swarm, which was still systematically breaking down each door one at a time. The undead dragon stopped from where he had last heard the argument.

**_METAL CAST!_**

His metallic arms easily ripped apart the wooden door. He growled and entered the room. From behind his mask he could see three champions running away from the building. The digimon noticed a figure on the back of an orange dinosaur with blue stripes. A new desire flushed away the hunger. A sinister smile appeared for one moment before he let loose an earsplitting roar. There were no more whispers as the rest of the swarm roared out a word in response. Let the hunt begin.

* * *

"Tai. The school was that way." Davis exclaimed when they turned down the street. He was riding on ExVeemon. Sora and Rei gripped tightly on Birdramon's legs. Tai and Taiko rode on Greymon's back while the digimon carried Rei's chair in his claws.

"Davis, we aren't actually going to blow up the school." Sora sighed.

The boy groaned in disappointment. "Then why would you get my hopes up." He complained.

A chorus of roars shattered away their conversation. The ones that dared look back saw hell leaving the hospital building and clouding the sky. There were hundreds of the creatures, and with a single roar from one of them the entire swarm began flying towards them.

"FASTER!" Davis screamed like a little girl. Even without the amusing cry, the digimon doubled their speed and crashed into a large building. They were forced to De-Digivolve after the impact.

"They're here!" Rei exclaimed. The swarm managed to catch up with them; they were no longer whispering, and their screams were ear shattering. Their metal Cannon Ball attacks blasted through the giant hold in the wall. She screamed when the attacks landed near them.

The boy, Taiko stood up and grabbed a flash drive from his belt. Tai saw him insert it into a waiting port on his watch and looked as the screen flashed with light. The DigiDestined felt his jaw fall as shining lines of data erupted from the device.

The streams solidified into a transparent image of a familiar digimon appeared in front of the swarm.

**_METAL WOLF CLAW!_**

Streams of icy lasers quickly froze a good chunk of the swarm and sealed up the entrance. "MetalGarurumon?" Tai gasped, staring at the shimmering digimon. The wolf turned its head and gave the brunette a knowing smirk before fading away into blue bits of data. From the outside, the champions started smashing into the ice and striking it with their attacks.

"Where are we?" Veemon asked after the initial shock passed.

"In that ugly business building that's taking forever to renovate." Davis explained. "It's too bad. They were almost done."

"Never mind that." Tai snapped, silencing the pair. He gestured to the boy. "You have some explaining to do."

Taiko remain silent for a moment as he put away the flash drive. "Would you even believe me if I told you?" He asked as the assault outside continued.

"We've been through pretty weird situations before." Tai chuckled. "Try us."

Taiko stood up and walked towards a newly painted staircase. "It's a complicated story. I'll tell you what I can on the way up."

The eight other occupants of the room looked at each other for a consensus, and the fierce growls at the other end of the ice made the choice for them. Tai quickly got Rei on his back and carried her up the stairs while Agumon grabbed her wheelchair. Davis complained as Gabo started to nestle into his hair.

They quickly proceeded up the stairs after the boy, who waited for them at the top. Once they all started up together he started. "According to the date, I'm born around five years from now." Taiko told them colloquially. He waited for a moment before the group absorbed that information.

"You're from the future!" Davis exclaimed, summing everyone's thoughts. "That's so cool. Did I ever get my noodle business running?" He started to ramble on about what he would name his business.

Tai shrugged, Rei made a stronger hold on the young man. "Yup, we've seen much weirder."

Taiko gave a chuckle before continuing his story, ignoring Davis's questions. "The future is – was a nice place." He commented. "The two worlds will become closely connected over the years, with a couple of problems here and there. My father once said that the world was like how he was growing up combined with sentient monsters everywhere. Everything was peaceful for a change. Until one day, an outbreak like this one occurred… in the Digital World."

Everyone grimaced at the thought. If this swarm was the result of one city getting hit…

"I was only a kid when the humans and their partners heard of this. I didn't care or know about anything other than when my partner would appear. It started to gradually get worse, the adults started to panic and become stressed, my father especially, but, around us, they never made seem like something was horribly wrong, until it did."

Taiko interrupted his story for a bitter chuckle. "By then the swarm swelled to mainly Ultimates and a group of them managed to reach Mega. Many Digimon fought back but the situation was became bad enough that even Azulongmon was forced to play a hand in order to quarantine the situation, sealing away the entire Continent of Server. I remember that DigiPorts were closed to prevent them from getting into the real world, but it had also prevented Digimon from escaping from the outbreak. After all those years of peace, the two worlds were forced to separate again."

A crash from below signaled that the DexDorugamon had broken through the icy wall. Taiko looked behind him and saw that everyone was tired from the long climb. There was only a floor or two to go. "Almost there guys." Tai breathed as he quickened his pace a bit. They could already hear the roars getting louder from below. At least the staircase was narrow enough so they couldn't fly.

They all quickly advanced though the last of the stairs and made their way up to the roof. All of them (except Rei) gasped heavily and sweated profusely. Taiko felt like he would black out again, but resisted it. They were close. The Digimon ran to hold off the swarm from breaking through the doors. Davis turned Veemon into Flamedramon when the digimon started to scratch at the metal doors. The armor digimon began to slowly weld the metal door to the entrance.

"I think all of them are inside." Sora sighed in relief. She looked over the rails and saw no sign of the undead digimon. Rei got on her wheelchair and looked over at the other side of the building.

"Nothing over her as well." She announced.

Taiko rummaged through his case for an appropriate flash drive. Davis cheered on the Digimon who collapsed into a tired heap when the welding was finished. The DexDorugamon struck the door for a few moments, roaring with annoyance.

"What happened after the gates were closed?" Tai asked curiously, standing next to Taiko. For some reason, the DigiDestined felt that the boy was uncomfortable around him.

_Did I do something to him in the future?_ Tai wondered. _He does look familiar… but I can't place it._

Taiko found the drive that he was looking for. He looked crestfallen as he told the next part of his story. "All barriers break eventually, a swarm of Megas and Ultimates managed to break out of the prison of light that Azulongmon created with a DigiCore to prevent them from spreading. The Sovereign managed to take out most of them… but even he fell in the end."

Tai shuddered; he had seen the power that the Azure Dragon held. It seemed like the world had gone silent from that revelation. Nobody spoke and the air was deadly silent. _Wait, silent?_ Tai hastily looked at the welded door. The swarm had stopped its attempts to break through. _What was going on? Could they have gone out back towards the first floor? But then Sora would have said something._

Suddenly, the entire building started to shake. The walls broke apart as something large was breaking out of the building. The roof shook violently making everyone try to hold on to something stable. Davis gripped onto the digimon who held on to the entrance. Tai struggled to keep his balance as the floor kept moving away from him. Taiko struggled to stay up as well as holding on to the flash drive in his hand. Sora and Rei grabbed each respective rail.

Tai sighed in relief to see that everyone was alright, until the next shake. To his horror he saw that the rail had not been completely attached to the building yet as a couple of them had fallen off from the last shake. _Get Away From There!_ He wanted to scream to them, but the words never made it out of his mouth. The weak bonds that held railings which the girls were holding on to break apart from the stress created from the unstable combination of the shaking and the girl's weight. They started to go over to the edge.

Tai paled and ran, knowing that he could only reach one of them in time, if he was lucky. He pumped as much energy as he could to dive and grip the girl's hand before she fell.

"I've got you." He sighed.

* * *

Ah the evil cliff hanger. Well, I hope this one was interesting. See you next time. R&R.


	6. 5 : Helpless in the End

My goodness it has been a while... in my opinion. AP, CST, and other tests without Acryonyms shattered my muses and I had finally put them together again to finish this chapter. "Our Long ... Nightmare Is Over" -Ford

Man, APUSH is getting to me.

_**DISCLAIMER: I Do Not Own Digimon**_

**5th Helpless in the End**

The knight breathed heavily as he managed to cut down another of the faceless dragons, but no matter how hard he fought they circled around him blocking off any attempt of escape, the Devourers were endless. They stretched across the ruined landscape and hovered around in the air, there was nowhere to run.

Omnimon X grimaced as he sliced through another one. This was strange, they would have all charged at him at once while screaming for his core, but now they were all eerily silent and only one or two of them were lazily striking at him.

_This is unusual._ The Royal Knight thought_. They have never been silent, ever! Why now?_

A groan disturbed his thoughts. Moments after they had escaped to the real world, Norn had collapsed. Then the rift that the knight had created opened, allowing the creatures to swarm out of the Digital World. Since then, the swarm slowly surrounded the X Digimon. Silently another pair lunged at him. He easily ripped them apart with this blade.

_It's like they're waiting for something_. The knight never thought that he would miss their cries for cores, but anything would be better than this unnerving silence.

A cracking sound resounded, stirring the DexDoruGreymon X looked up to the sky, where the rift burst open once more. Dexmon single-handedly ripped apart the gate and glared down on the Knight and let out a sinister call.

_SOON!_ The dragon bellowed, the entire swarm took up the new call.

Omnimon X shuddered, he already missed the silence.

* * *

Matt Ishida strummed his guitar, rehearsing for his concert that night._I wonder who Tai's going to take._ He thought. The image of a certain girl flashed through his mind. _Yeah, right._ The rockstar chuckled at the thought and returned his focus back to his song._He'll get the guts to do it soon… like around the time when hell freezes over._

"Alright Guys, let's start from the top… Guys?" Matt looked around the room and noticed that none of the other band members were in the room. He went out and looked for them. "Come on guys, where are you? We have a concert to work on."

The DigiDestined found his friends huddled around the television. He tried to say something to them, but was quickly hushed. The rockstar sighed and watched the news report along with the others. As the reporter continued with her report, Matt grew pale. "GABUMON!"

He grabbed his partner and dragged the digimon out of the building, a bright light appeared moments after. A cold wind whispered past the building as a streak of cyan and navy rushed past the building. His band mates glanced back to see their leader leave and returned to the report:

"The mass evacuation of the city of Odaiba is nearly complete. It is still a black area where there are no communications, but we still know that some members of the DigiDestined Group are still in the city. Whatever they are facing this time, we all wish them luck."

* * *

The building stopped shaking. Whatever was in the building now roared in rage. Tai pulled the girl away from the edge before the creature started to rampage again. "Are you alright, Sora?" He asked, hugging the shaking girl.

She kneeled there, stunned. "…but… Rei…" Sora looked over the brunette's shoulder and sighed with relief to see that Davis and Taiko had caught the other girl.

Rei looked at her sadly, her disappointment mixed in with her fear and adrenaline. Sora felt Tai stand up. He put out his hand to pull her up. "I'll never let you fall." He said simply, seeing the confusion in his friend's eyes.

The digimon inside of the building let out another roar. Taiko swore as a large arm crashed blindly out of the building. "Things just got worse guys! One of them must have killed and absorbed the others, it digivolved into Mega!"

"Then we go with the original plan." Tai declared, looking over at Davis and Sora. The other two DigiDestined nodded and held up shining DigiVices. Exveemon and Birdramon hovered off of the building with the five humans and two Digimon.

Taiko quickly inserted the flash drive that he had and inserted it into his watch. The streams of data emerged from the device again, revealing another familiar digimon. Tai and Agumon gaped in shock as a perfect copy of WarGreymon, clad in ghostly orange armor, emerged and rose above the building, charging up his greatest attack.

**_TERRA FORCE!_**

The fireball slammed violently into the building and forced ExVeemon and Birdramon to land on an adjacent building. The Duo of Courage were still staring at the ghostly Mega. "Hey Agumon, is it just me or does that WarGreymon look a lot like you."

"Well if I weren't here next to you then I would be thinking that it was me." His partner replied.

The transparent WarGreymon looked down on them and gave a brisk nod before fading back into data. Tai turned his attention back on the smoldering remains of the building, he noticed Taiko grimaced when they saw a giant shadow standing in the smoke.

"Guys. I don't think it worked." Davis choked. ExVeemon didn't have the strength to return a remark.

The creature blew away the dust and debris with its mighty wings. Most of the group shuddered from the sight of the mismatched black and red wings attached to the shiny purple armor accented with pale yellow streaks. A dark purple smog billowed from an orb from the digimon's tail.

The Mega level let loose an earsplitting roar. "Th… that's DexDorugoramon. A… a vicious dragon digimon that haunts the digital world myths and nightmares. Elecmon'd tell stories of how this monster's Metal Impulse and DORU Din attacks would beat down any naughty in-trainings that don't get to bed on time. Oh, but Santa said that I was on the nice list last year." Agumon analyzed.

"Well at least we know that you need a new curfew." Tai joked nervously.

DexDorugoramon flapped its wings and rose into the sky. The undead dragon used its tail to crush apart the surrounding buildings. The Champions had to carry everyone off of the roof and landed on the ground, quickly Devolving back into rookies. The group retreated away from the resulting cloud of purple. The fog gathered around DexDorugoramon.

"Get Down!" Taiko barked. The others quickly complied as the undead dragon unleashed his attack.

**_DORU DIN!_**

A powerful shockwave radiated from the digimon, obliterating the surrounding blocks. Sora shuddered. "I'm starting to see how a swarm of these things could rival Azulongmon." She observed.

The dragon started to roar and rampage, a purple fog growing even stronger than before.

"Agumon, are you able to Digivolve?" Tai asked his partner. All of the Digimon were tired from the running they had to do before. Agumon weakly nodded.

Someone let out a high pitched scream. Taiko looked at the girls who both shook their heads. Tai was shaking his head in Davis's direction. The young leader took no notice at the other's stares as he pointed at DexDorugoramon. The others looked up and saw molten metal spewing from the dragon's mouth. Inside of it was a ball of white hot metal growing larger by the moment, rivaling WarGreymon's Terra Force attack.

"Run!" Taiko said. While everyone else started running away from the deadly towering dragon, Tai started walking towards the Digimon, Agumon following.

"Tai, what are you doing?" Sora exclaimed, noticing what he was doing.

"You'll never make it." Tai said, his DigiVice flickering with a warm orange light. "So I'll end this here."

**_METAL IMPULSE!_**

DexDorugoramon unleashed his attack as Agumon also shone with light. In an instant the draconic warrior stood again, gripping the molten ball. With a mightly roar, WarGreymon chucked it back at the undead dragon. The metal ball collided with DexDorugoramon erupting on his purple armor, knocking away a majority of the fog.

DexDorugoramon shuddered for a moment. Then he glared down at the group, locking his glare on one person. Instead of his usual roar, the undead dragon let out a low growl, one that they all heard.

_TAIKO._

Tai and the others looked at the boy from the future, who was as shocked as they were. The dragon shuddered after saying the name, some of the purple fog cleared along with the dragon.

**_TAIKO!_**

DexDorugoramon shuddered again, the fog growing back faster than ever. The dragon looked back down at them, screaming again for his hunger for DigiCores. WarGreymon flew at it; his Dramon Destroyers still red hot from handling the fireball.

The purple smog encircled the dragon again.

DORU DIN!

WarGreymon barely managed to block the destructive energy with his gauntets. DexDorugoramon immediately began to spew molten iron from his mouth again, another ball growing in size. WarGreymon tried to shake off the residual energy and retaliate quickly. A blast of blue energy rammed into the draconic digimon's head, knocking the incomplete sphere out of the way.

Tai looked for the origin of the blast, grinning when he saw the new arrival. "It's about time!"

Matt hopped off of MetalGarurumon and gave his friend a high-five. The rockstar looked at DexDorugoramon, who was swatting at their partners like they were flies. "Why am I not surprised?" Matt sighed. "Do these guys always have to attack on the days that I have concerts? MetalGarurumon! Take him down!"

**_ICE WOLF CLAW!_**

Missiles erupted from the cybernetic wolf's body and detonated on DexDorugoramon, unleashing the explosive ice and hardening the molten steel that was on the undead dragon's body. WarGreymon smirked and flew towards the dragon, spinning at a high-speed.

**_GREAT TORNADO!_**

WarGreymon easily struck the creature, knocking it backwards. DexDorugoramon struggled to get back up, but collapsed on the remains of the city.

The digimon waited for DexDorugoramon to move. "Is it over?" WarGreymon wondered.

"Let's not take the chance." MetalGarurumon growled as he attacked the undead dragon with his missiles again, encasing him in a shell of ice.

Back on the ground, Matt turned to his friend and took notice of Taiko's presence. The boy still had a shocked look on his face from the digimon's growl. "You have some explaining to do buddy." The rockstar said to his friend.

* * *

It took a moment for the group to catch Matt up; they were further away from the frozen DexDorugoramon than they were before. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon returned to their rookie forms, on guard in case the undead dragon broke from his icy prison.

Once Matt was caught up with the tale, Taiko, who had been in a frozen state for the past few minutes, continued his story:

"Once Azulongmon saw that there was no way he could escape the swarm, he released his remaining DigiCores to prevent the swarm from assimilating his energy. In doing so, he unleashed an old Guardian of the Digital World, a being called Yggdrasil." He noticed that the Digimon shuddered at the name, he ignored it for the moment and continued his tale.

"Yggdrasil emerged from his resting place in File Island, energized by Azulongmon's eight remaining cores. He recreated eight of his servants, Royal Knights that could fight off the swarm. At the same time, the DexDorugoramon ripped Azulongmon apart and integrated his data, and his data was powerful enough to bring almost all of the swarm to their Ultimate form, DexDoruGreymon. The Megas, like Frosty over there, became fused together in a giant Digi-Egg.

The Knights were powerful but they were too few. The swarm was weaker but outnumbered them by the millions. After the seeing the losing battle, Yggdrasil started to contact the human world for months, asking to transport the non-infected over and asked for help. No one replied to his pleas. My Father… wanted to help, but when the swarm appeared the World Leaders locked their DigiPorts and forbid anyone or anything to cross over the worlds. There was nothing anyone could have done from our side.

Back over, Yggdrasil started to lose his patience and then believed that the humans had abandoned them in their time of need. He needed to take matters into his own hands (A/N: Or fins, or tentacle vine… fingers?). Yggdrasil started to create a program that could eradicate the entire swarm in one move. He analyzed the data from the creatures and created a powerful virus that only targeted the swarm. It was to delete the physical data, leaving behind the DigiCore and since the Swarm had no core, there would be nothing left of them.

The King downloaded the virus, dubbed the X-Virus, into an orb. He entrusted the task to his loyal servant Omnimon-"

"One of these Knights was an Omnimon!" Tai exclaimed looking at his partner, giving the orange reptile a thumbs-up. Matt patted Gabumon on his head as well.

"As I was saying, Omnimon received the mission to release the Virus in the middle of Server, where the giant egg rested. After fighting through waves of infected, the lone knight managed to reach the center of the continent alive. He unleashed the virus, scarring the sky with crimson light, the signal for the hope that their struggles were over… or it should have been." Taiko's voice dropped and an air of gloom hung over the group like a dark fog.

He sighed for a moment and continued. "The virus was highly infective, to other digimon. Once the Virus was freed from the orb, the code suddenly mutated, changing so that it was ineffective against certain Digimon. The entire swarm line was immune to it. Ordinary Digimon that had managed to survive against the swarm in Server were quickly eradicated, leaving behind their cores in the form of flash drives, their inanimate form easy prey for the swarm."

Everyone gasped and looked at the future boy's belt. Black drives neatly lined the open case.

"Those that survived did because they gained a code that resisted the X-Virus, an X-Antibody, which mutated them to a different form. Now the Digital World faced two plagues, both of them quickly reducing the number of Digimon. What made matters even worse was that the Egg had hatched, revealing a Digimon that exceeded the power of any existing Mega levels. In its hunger it devoured the data of the Digital World directly, reducing the world's code to a simple grid format.

Yggdrasil communicated with the human world one more time, this time ending with an ultimatum: Unseal the locks on the DigiPorts and allow them to find refuge in the new world, or they will come by force. They had until August 1st to decide.

The adults became frantic, trying to convince the Authorities to allow the Digimon across. The bastards weren't even listening at this point, deciding that ignoring the situation was the correct answer and that the world would implode on its own. The Digimon were mad, but there was no way they could force the gates open. By then they had been as secretly guarded as warheads."

The group shuddered, Tai clutching the ground wondering why anyone could ignore a situation as grave as that. _Is there anything I could do to change that? What can I do to have a voice?_

"So the date came along, I still didn't know anything at the time. I watched as the sky burned red, the King finding a way to bypass the ports, sending the X-Virus to our world and infecting the partnered digimon. Then the remaining Knights were given immunity to the Virus and the ability to cross into the defenseless world. I watched as the slaughter occurred as they ripped through continent after continent, everyone helpless as death rained down from the sky. I was helpless again, there was nothing that could be done in the end."

* * *

Well, more storytelling and some fighting. I've replied to my last couple of reviewers, it's nice to know what you guys think.

Till next time,

453


	7. 6 : The End Descends

Hi and a happy memorial day weekend to you.

**_Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Digimon_**

**6th The End Descends**

Was his shirt always this red? What happened? There was a flash of light, a streak of silver, a loud screech, and a putrid smell of death.

A flickering light was somewhere in front of him. Was the world always this fuzzy? It was like watching static. His vision cleared, revealing the flickering flames in front of them. Oh how he missed the static. A familiar face was in the driver's seat, face down on a white bag that had erupted from the wheel.

The door beside him erupted open, a pair of arms pulled him out of the car. He could feel something clutched tightly in his grip, but he didn't look down. His gaze was locked on the person in the car.

He struggled in vain as he tried to escape the person's grip. Screams echoed the air, he watched as people started to run away from the accident. A loud explosion echoed through the air, followed by a blinding flash of light. His vision grew fuzzy again, once it returned, he saw that the crash resulted in a terrible fire.

Hate and rage grew like the flames. Ash collected and floated freely in the air, along with something else, something golden; data. Watching the fading data bits, the ebbing rage faded to a curious sorrow. Down in his lap rested two tear soak articles, a bright silver locket and a charred shard of shrapnel.

* * *

Each time he attacked the beast he couldn't wound it for long. Dexmon only needed to devour a member or two from the swarm to regenerate. Omnimon X grimaced at the sight of the millions of the swarm remaining.

Dexmon roared and pinned the knight down to the dusty soil, his heavy weight preventing the X-Digimon to escape. Omnimon X noticed that, for some reason, the left arm that he cut off earlier has yet to regenerate.

"Soon!" Dexmon hissed as his clawed hand pinned down the knight's cannon arm. The knight held back a scream, pushing away the pain as long as he could as the undead dragon slowly pulled back his purple armored arm, pulling the Royal Knight's blue arm along with it.

Then blue sparks scattered from his arm as the joints holding in his arm started to get ripped apart. He reached his breaking point… literally. The X Antibody Royal Knight screamed in pain as the joints popped open, his cannon arm torn from his body.

_Is this how it will end?_ The knight thought in the midst of his pain. _After all these years of fighting, after all he has gone through, after all __**HE**__ had been though. NEVER!_

Omnimon X's scream changed from a scream of agony to a scream of rage. His Grey Sword flew from his left arm and slashed Dexmon, forcing the dragon to leap off of the Knight.

**_GREY SWORD!_**

A crescent-shaped blast of energy flew from the blade. Dexmon clutched the stolen arm and quickly flew to avoid the attack. As Omnimon X's attack cut down the Devourers in its path, Dexmon extended the stolen arm.

**_PROCESS "0"_** (A/N: Slightly changing what it does for plot purposes)

Bands of code circled around the Garuru Cannon, springing it to life and changing into a purple hue. Omnimon X saw a growing blue light shining from the barrel. "Oh Crap."

The Royal Knight struggled to stay conscious inside of his crater, his armor dented and charred horribly. Dexmon landed in front of the fallen knight. The effect of his attack wore off and the arm changed back to its original color. Dexmon slammed the cannon arm next to Omnimon X, flying out of the crater soon after. Then the knight saw the dragon returning to the hole, Norn out cold in his hand. Dexmon looked at the being and gave a fervent whisper, "Soon."

Dexmon then unleashed a mighty roar, and in an instant the swarm flew around the crater, stretching into a cycle of red and black stretching into the sky. The undead dragon placed Norn next to the cannon.

Process "0"!

Dexmon's attack shifted the blue stones on Norn's attire from a brilliant blue to a dark purple. Slowly she stood up and opened her eyes, purple lines of codes streamed across her blue eyes; Dexmon had full control. She kneeled down and touched the arm, starting to drone her chant.

_Scanning__

_Subject Coding Identified__

_Searching Temporal System__

_Similar Coding Located__

_ERROR__

_Power Sources Depleted__

_Scanning for Alternative Source__

**_PROCESS "F"!_**

Dexmon raised his arm to the sky, commanding complete control over the swarm. Omnimon X heard the Devourers give one last terrible scream before the cyclone burst into data. The bits started to funnel down and amass into Dexmon's outstretched claws. The wounded knight shuddered at Dexmon's monstrous power. The dragon presented the orb of data to Norn.

_Alternative Power Found__

_Beginning Coding Lock On__

_Target Locked__

_Commencing Transfer Program__

Omnimon X felt a bit of his energy returning to him, he sat up and noticed a familiar blue circle of light appearing around the crater. His eyes filled with shock when he figured out the dragon's plan. "Taiko." He gasped.

"Soon." The dragon whispered as they all became engulfed with light.

_Program Complete__

The light exploded into nothingness, once it faded there was nothing left in the corpses of two worlds.

* * *

The DigiDestined looked at each other awkwardly. None of them had faced a person breaking down to this extent before. Taiko had suddenly collapsed to his side and curled into a ball, clutching the locket that hung from his neck.

"What's wrong?" Tai asked, receiving no response. He shrugged and looked at the other DigiDestined for help. Rei sighed and pushed her chair next to the sobbing boy and patted him in his back, whispering something into his ear.

Tai heard a few snippets of her soothing words, and within moments the boy calmed down into a quieter slumber. He gave her a curious glance, which she returned with a small smile. "My brother went through a similar phase after my accident… it took a while to learn how to get him out of it." She explained with her smile, mixed with emotion.

A calmer mood descended onto the group as they started to ponder over Taiko's tale. A thought and a conjecture appeared, but before they could discuss their ideas they were distracted by a deafening CRACK! That one crack was followed by another and then another, continuing like a shattering glacier. They snapped their attention to where they knew the sound originated.

The ice crumbled apart, freeing the dragon within. DexDorugoramon shuddered, disoriented from the cold; his eerie whispers echoed in a dark chant, rising in intensity by each word.

_Hate… World… Devour… ALL!... GIVE… BACK!_

DexDorugoramon roared in rage, molten metal dripping from his jaws, his tail thrashed on the rocks and ice, shockwaves from his DORU Din attack shook the island city. The undead dragon searched the battlefield for something to vent out his anger on, and found that he was alone. He howled in anger and sniffed the air, catching the familiar scent of DigiCores. "_Taiko_." He growled before giving chase.

* * *

The groups split up into smaller groups of two as they ran towards the untouched areas of the city. Matt and Davis headed off in one direction, Tai carried Taiko down an alleyway, Sora pushed Rei away from the other two. As they ran they could hear DexDorugoramon crying out in anguish.

Sora listened as the undead dragon rampaged into the city. Biyomon, carrying the Tsunomon in her claws, turned back and noted that fires started to ravage the city.

She turned around and looked at the massive destruction of the city. Anxiety started to creep into her mind. "It'll be alright." She heard a reassuring voice.

The redhead looked down to the wheelchair, seeing Rei giving her a nice smile. "Tai is a very kind and dependable person when it comes to his friends."

The DigiDestined of Love looked at the girl for a moment, before returning a smile of her own. "Yeah," She answered, most of her worries decayed into a new feeling of confidence and trust. "He does, doesn't he?"

Suddenly a great explosion lit the field, and they turned around to see a pillar of smoke billowing into the air. Rei gasped as the figure of DexDorugoramon appeared between crumbling skeletons of burned buildings. Sora wondered why the girl was freaking out to this extent when the dragon was that far away… until she noticed that the dragon was clutching something in his hands.

"Tai." She whispered. DexDorugoramon readied his attack on the humans in his hands, the purple gas cloaking around him for the shockwave. Then an intense whistling screeched across the air as blue light shone above the clouds.

* * *

Matt and Davis rushed down the street, Garurumon quickly bypassing the obstacles. "I think we lost him." Davis sighed as the cyan wolf slowed down and returned to his Rookie form. "Are you alright Veemon?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just a little sick." The blue dragon groaned as he collapsed into Davis's lap, snoring.

There was a small moment of silence before Matt spoke up. "I never got a change to ask, but just who was that girl?" The rockstar asked the younger DigiDestined.

"Tai's girlfriend." Davis replied neutrally, scratching his head. He found that there were still bandages from his hospital visit and decided that it was alright to take them off.

"WHAT!?" Matt yelled. "No way, how long has this been going on?"

Davis shrugged as he caressed his head to feel where to start tearing off his bandage. The blond snickered. "Well, I know why he wanted that ticket now… though I don't know how well pull it off after this. Oh well, I'll pry out the details from him after this blows over."

_So what happens now?_ He thought.

The DigiDestined of Friendship became distracted as a couple of buildings caught fire a couple blocks away, they could hear the dragon's roars from the smoke and flames. There was a pause in what they could see, until DexDorugoramon's wings blew out the flames and sent the boys into a fit of worry. The undead dragon held Tai and Taiko in each hand.

Matt fumbled for his DigiVice while Davis quit struggling with the loose cloth, which became stuck around his goggles and now covered one of his eyes, and started to try to wake up his tired partner.

By the time they were ready, they were too far away from being able to do anything. The dragon prepared his attack, until it roared in annoyance when a screeching whistle appeared in the air. He stopped the attack distracted by the simmering blue light and a manifesting shadow from the crowd.

* * *

Tai breathed heavily as he put the sleeping boy on the ground. He had run through the twisting labyrinth of the alleyways and somehow came into a dead-end. The DigiDestined of Courage sighed and looked over to his partner, standing guard against the dragon if it comes, and then over to the sleeping boy next to him.

_When this is over… I want to change the relations between the two worlds with my own hands. No more standing from the sidelines ever again._ He vowed in his head.

There was a rumbling sound as the undead dragon reached the city.

"Dad." Came a quiet whisper. Tai looked down at the boy who was lost in his dreams. "Where's Mom gone? … A better place? Like the Digital World? … Not coming back? … Alright… You won't leave me too, right, Dad?"

Taiko's hand shivered. Tai suddenly reached and grabbed the boy's hand. A small smile appeared on his face. "Thanks Dad." He muttered in his sleep.

Then a he heard a harsh voice. "AGUMON!" He exclaimed, his DigiVice shining brightly.

**_METAL IMPULSE!_**

Just as the ball of metal rushed towards them, WarGreymon barely managed to defend the humans with his shield. The attack detonated on the shield, the draconic digimon used all of his strength to resist getting blown away with the flames.

A tired Koromon landed next to Tai. DexDorugoramon topple charred buildings as he headed towards them. He easily towered over them and picked them up in his claws, roaring in victory.

_Destroy. Give. Back._ The dragon whispered, waking up Taiko and sending a chill down Tai's neck.

DexDorugoramon roared, his purple gas gathering around him for his shockwave attack. Tai watched as the purple gas shimmered with light. Was this how it will end?

**_DORU_**-

Suddenly a deafening pitch echoed in the air. DexDorugoramon roared and stopped the attack, searching for the source of the noise. The dragon looked up and saw a shining blue light in the clouds and a dark figure appearing from deep within.

The shadow grew larger until a giant creature fell out and crashed into the ground in front of them. Tai gasped as he recognized the creature as an Omnimon… or something similar. The Knight had a sharper armor than the usual version, decorated with shimmering blue stones. The DigiDestined of Courage noticed that the Digimon was extremely battered and the arm that would usually have a Garuru Cannon was missing. A hole was where the arm should have been, blue sparks still flying out. Under his other arm, a girl in white rested.

The knight turned and looked at the dragon. No, he was looking past the dragon. "Omni!" Taiko exclaimed, struggling in the undead dragon's grip.

Omnimon X groan, trying to find some strength to speak, to call out his warning. With what he could muster, the knight muttered, "Gre… at… Devou… rer… is… COMING!"

The words stopped the boy from his struggle. Tai did not know what they were talking about but it seemed bad. He noticed that Taiko was looking up into the sky in fear, Tai also looked up and couldn't help but grimace.

Another shadow appeared in the sky, this one dwarfing the one the knight created as it appeared. A larger Digimon burst through the clouds flapping down with a similar set of wings that DexDorugoramon had. It had a sickly green skin and similar purple armor set to the undead dragon. It had one arm, the other missing. Tai shuddered as he recognized the arm the new Digimon had been similar to the one that crashed onto them in the park.

_Was this what had emerged from the egg?_

The entire island shook as the creature crashed into the ground. "Dex…mon." Taiko shuddered.

Dexmon gave a mighty roar, a roar that promised death and decay to whoever hears it. The great dragon then looked at the knight with a glare of triumph. Dexmon stretched out his hand.

**_Process F._**

There was a horrible scream as the Great Devourer's victim shriveled into shards of data. The swirling data spiraled into a glittering purple ball. While Dexmon was distracted with his kill, flashes of blue and navy flew past him and caught the falling boys.

MetalGarurumon and Raidramon managed to catch both of them and land safely on the ground.

Tai was still shocked that Dexmon could easily delete DexDorugoramon like the smaller dragon was nothing.

Dexmon lifted the purple sphere to his stump. The sphere extended and regrew the dragon's missing arm. The great dragon glared at the small group in front of him. Then he spoke. Tai shuddered. Dexmon's whisper was nothing like the roar from before. It was dark, sinister, and as he spoke Tai felt like he was listening to a thousand screams of terror.

_Complete Soon… Need one more DigiCore… Then… Can destroy ALL that is hated…_

The great dragon went towards the group who were all gathered around the fallen knight.

_Give it to me!_

Matt looked at the fallen knight. "Come on, can't you DeDigivolve to heal?"

"No… A Royal… Knight is born… like this… there is no… previous form for me."

Tai turned to Taiko whose gaze remained locked on Dexmon in a horrid fascination. "Can't you heal him? He's your partner isn't he?"

Taiko finally broke free of his gaze and turned around to Tai, giving him a bitter smile. "Omni is my savior, who helped me survive the day of the end. The is my mentor who helped me survive in the years after the end. But he was never my partner, not in that way…"

The others looked stunned, and became interrupted by a fierce growl. Their attentions went back to the giant deadly dragon coming closer to them.

_Taiko… Give It Back To Me… Give Me Back the DigiCore… Soon I Will Complete Your Wish… Taiko, My Partner._

* * *

HA! Didn't see that coming did you? If you did... awsome. BTW, for those who saw the X-Evo movie, did you notice how much the DexDoruGreymon sounded like seagulls?

Well, R&R, and Have A Nice Day,

-453


	8. 7 : Bringer of the End

Finally! Dear gosh I thought that I'd never get this done. Just a back-story chapter so I can set the mood for the next one... or so I can remember what I was planning for this story. Enjoy.

Here is the mandatory word count supplement involving an obvious statement:

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon_**

**7th: Bringer of the End**

It was dark, tight, and extremely cramped. In the darkness there was a cold silence. The creature tried to move, to power through the isolated prison, but his efforts were futile and he was unable to crack the tough wall. It was irritating and he wanted to scream in rage, but there was no room to even open his mouth. The creature settled for an annoyed growl. Then something responded from the other side with whispers. He growled again, if the voices on the other side were going to be this quiet then they might as well be silent.

He did not know how long he waited in darkness, waiting for the walls to break apart and for him to leave. There was nothing for him in the silence and the taunting shadows annoyed him to no end. Other duties lingered in his mind, to complete them he needed to get free; he needed to finish it! As if something heard his unspoken wish, a loud commotion was heard from outside of the walls. The loud screams and explosions were pleasant to hear after the long silence. The fighting outside climaxed into a resonant smash of glass, then it descended into a scream of fear and despair.

He gave a chuckle and then heard a loud CRACK! Where there was darkness for so long, he felt light. Something had weakened the walls. The creature struggled against his prison with a revived vigor; he could feel freedom only inches away.

His dormant muscles quivered in anticipation for the freedom the light promised. The creature broke through the weakened shell and roared, shattering through the eggshell. Dexmon emerged to the sea of crimson and black dragons, which stood in still silence. With his sharp eyes, the dragon saw a glimpse of white in the sea.

_Move._ He commanded. The sea whispered in obedience. Dexmon walked to the white spot, and the red sea split apart for him. As he walked, the ground decayed into simple yellow grids. The dragon towered over the white knight. Dexmon saw a faint red outline was around him; his data painfully ripped itself apart.

Then the dragon noticed a broken orb lying on the ground next to the knight. It had the same sickly red aura billowing out of it. Dexmon stared down at the decaying knight and then at the wide swarm, all of whom unaffected by the red light. Dexmon grabbed one of the smaller dragons in one of his hands.

**_Process F._**

The DexDoruGreymon dissolved into small crystals shimmering in blue light. A weak wind blew the crystals out of the dragons hands. One shard landed on the weakened knight and erupted in blue light. The blue devoured the red, changing the knight's form to become sharper and fitted with similar blue stones. The white knight stood up and looked at his new appearance in horror. Dexmon watched as the knight glared at his with eyes of hate mixed with fear before the knight flew away.

Over the next few days the continent that he was one became nothing but an empty space of grids. Dexmon learned his new abilities involved dissolving creatures apart and controlling creatures that can survive the red virus. His swarm swell to great numbers, with a few survivors kept alive so he doesn't fall dormant. They would get devoured when the swarm arrived on a new land which would be deleted in hours of their visit.

Within days most of the Digital World quickly fell to the swarm. The swarm reduced everything into empty grids with the occasional floating rock. Now they reached the last area of the Digital World the remained intact; File Island. In that island there was the last piece that he needed to obtain, if the rumors of the dying and tortured were true.

_Soon_. Dexmon chuckled triumphantly. The swarm gave a chorus of cruel hungry roars, following their leader in whatever he said. Nowadays they were never silent.

The dragon watched as a part of his swarm charged into the island and its waiting protectors. Dexmon flew past the fighting knights towards the towering mountain in the middle of the island. The dragon noticed that the white knight was not in the ongoing battle.

Dexmon walked into the eye of the battle where a giant white being that rivaled him in height was waiting. It was the being that he was searching for, the one whispered on the deathbed of many of his victims, YggDrasil. The dragon watched as the white being erupted with green tentacles that tried to impale him.

**_Process F._**

The tentacles dissolved into bits of data and harmlessly blew past the dragon. DexDoruGreymon that were not swarming the knights started to cluster behind Dexmon.

Dexmon watched as YggDrasil started to regenerate its tentacles. White energy sparked from the tips of the thorns that stemmed from the vines. The white being lashed out its vines, eradicating dozens of fighting DexDoruGreymon.

"Thank you my king." A black cat-like knight praised for the momentary relief before heading back into the battle.

YggDrasil reached out his vines, ensnaring the dragon's left hand. Dexmon felt the powerful electricity coursing through his arm. The white being expected a scream or groan of pain from the dragon but instead heard a vicious chuckle.

"What?" Muttered the king in his metallic voice.

Dexmon opened his claws and gripped the tentacles, pulling the being closer to him. The dragon could see YggDrasil's red eyes flashing with various lines of code.

**_PROCESS F!_** Dexmon roared out the attack. The swarm stopped their brawl and watched their leader. The Royal Knights blasted through the pausing dragons to reach their master who struggled to escape the dragon's grip. The dragon paid no notice to the electricity that the being released in its skirmish to escape.

The cluster of DexDoruGreymon behind him burst into data and consolidated into a blue crystal shard. With a mighty roar, Dexmon drove the spike into YggDrasil. The metallic being groaned in pain as the code entered his body, code screened through its eyes as they shifted from red to blue. A flash of light ejected from its body and crashed into the mountain behind them. Dexmon released its tentacles as it crashed into the ground of the island, flailing its tentacles as its body started to convulse and transform violently.

YggDrasil's body became jagged and blue stones started to sprout from it. The being gave the dragon a glare of spite; quickly shooting out another barrage of vines at him. Dexmon gave a toothy smirk and raised his claws over the weakened being.

**_Process 0._**

YggDrasil gave out a fierce screech as his new body received another color change and shifted into a deep purple. The being shot out its tentacles and electrocuted the seven remaining knights. The being gave the stunned knights another wave of electricity causing them all to fall down to the earth. When they stood, the knights had cold emotionless eyes. They collected around YggDrasil and kneeled to the being and the dragon.

Dexmon gave a hearty chuckle as he watched the once struggling knights bow before him.

_"What… is the date… in the human world?"_ The dragon asked.

"July Twenty-Fifth." YggDrasil droned.

_"Perfect… Give the… choice. To let your knights… to cross the borders… or else enter… forcefully. Destroy their defenses… and kill everything."_

"Everything?" The being questioned.

_"Everything."_ Dexmon confirmed.

The white being turned to obey its orders. Dexmon noticed that YggDrasil's body slightly jumped with static. _ It won't last long, perhaps a week more. Just enough time. It's just the body after all, the heart is what I want._

The dragon looked at the human world behind a screen YggDrasil created to communicate with their leaders. _It's almost complete Taiko, I know you can survive this. You're my partner after all._

The dragon gave his servant another set of commands and returned to the void with his swarm. As they left, the island slowly started to crumble into data.

* * *

A week passed quickly and August First arrived in the human world. Dexmon returned to the deteriorating island and watched as the knights prepared to enter the human world. They stood in front of a green rimmed portal. On the other side was the side view of a large island district. One white armored dragon held a large red orb in his arms. The dragon knight looked at YggDrasil, who was unstable and jumping every few seconds.

"Is it time my lord?" Dynasmon asked.

"Ye-N-YEN-YES!" YggDrasil screeched. Dexmon growled. His control was reaching its limits. The knight threw the orb through the gate. The glass holding back the virus dissolved away, letting the virus spread around the human world, infecting the digital life and dissolving their data based devices.

From behind the portal, the knights could hear the chaos and fear that permeated from the world. Then the seven knights crossed the portal into the human world, taking advantage of the rising chaos to begin their assault.

The knight in golden armor destroyed tall buildings with golden missile strikes. The debris fell down to the chaotic crowds of people below. The pink armored knight slashed through the supporting columns of a busy freeway and collapsed the entire structure and all of its users with a powerful strike of her gauntlet. A large crimson dragon with a gun as large as its body unleashed an onslaught of powerful shells on to the defenseless city, reducing much of the building and inhabitants into ashes.

By then people started to realize that there was an attack, a mass panic started to erupt. A red armored centaur knight unleashed a blast of ice that froze most of the fleeing crowd, crushing his frozen victims as he searched people that he missed. The cat-like knight followed another crowd, mercilessly slashing anyone who met his path. A digimon in black armor, brandishing a white trench coat, unleashed a dragon composed of energy to eradicate anybody the others missed.

The white dragon knight, Dynasmon, watched the carnage on the top of a burning bridge. He looked up at the portal again as it started to shimmer. In the distance more portals started to appear. Red and black forms appeared from the new portals. The DexDoruGreymon screamed in hunger as they descended down to the human world.

He noticed that the other knights finished with their part of the destruction and collected around the dragon knight, leaving a fiery city behind them.

"Alright, I'll finish it here. There's still an entire world to purge." Dynasmon said to the other knights. The others nodded and vanished quickly. As the others left for their stations, the dragon knight turned his attention to the island behind him.

**_BREATH OF WYVREN!_**

The attack erupted on the entire island, burning it and its inhabitants to ashes. The cold digimon left to continue his mission. He stretched out his violet wings and prepared to fly off, before noticing a faint light lingering behind him.

* * *

Dexmon chuckled viciously. _"So you survived."_ The dragon noted.

"No. – No! – NO!" YggDrasil flailed his vines, electicity flashing wildly. "I must… stop them." The being droned, reaching for the portal.

_"Not – So – Fast!"_ Dexmon cackled ripping his claws into YggDrasil's armor. The hazy being shrieked in pain and slashed wildly at the dragon. Dexmon sneered then plunged his claws into the being's core. _"Useless… without Heart!"_ YggDrasil collapsed and started to dissolve away. _"Useless without heart." _Dexmon repeated solemnly.

"NO!" A voice exclaimed. A laser struck him in the head. Dexmon collapsed on the island, breaking it apart into pitiful pieces. The black gears that were hidden inside of the island scattered into the void. The white knight had reappeared. The knight kneeled next to the fallen king who reverted back to a brilliant blue color. "Lord Drasil…"

"Sorry…" The being droned. "I was too judgemental of your appearance… and unfairly casted you out."

"It was for the best."

"Yes…" YggDrasil chuckled. "If you stayed... there would be no hope left. I have one last request… my loyal knight… the others are beyond repair… I can no longer help either world… protect the heart… save what you can… please." With those last words the being shattered away and faded into the darkness.

By now Dexmon had recovered from the blast and started to gather the DexDoruGreymon that didn't leave for the human world. The knight realized that this was a fight that he cannot win. He gave the dragon a final glare and raced through the portal.

Dexmon chuckled at the closing portal and returned his attention to the floating mountain. The DexDoruGreymon felt uneasy near the rock, Dexmon climbed on to a rock and slowly nodded off. The time for change would come; when it does he is ready. Come Taiko, I shall grant your wish soon.

* * *

"How is this possible?" Dynasmon gasped. Though the X-Virus had deleted the Digimon's body, the core had remained behind. Somehow the cores, in the form of a flash drive, had summoned an imprint of their former bodies. Right now he faced a shimmering MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon standing protectively in front of a child.

**_DRAGON'S ROAR!_**

A shot of energy shot past the holographic digimon. Their forms fizzled and they broke apart. The child grabbed the fallen chips.

"Foolish human." Dynasmon sneered, his eyes staring at him with a cold disdain. "You cannot avoid King Drasil's judgment." The dragon knight towered over the child and lifted his armored foot to crush him, until a beam of light knocked him away from the kid.

"Are you that lost, Brother?" A white knight asked, descending down from the sky. "Lord Drasil had been under the control of a demon! What have they done to completely blind you?"

"I have no words for an abomination!" Dynasmon screamed.

"Then there is no hope for you." The white knight sighed, releasing a sword from his draconic hand. "I will free you from this darkness, Brother."

**_DRAGON'S ROAR!_**

The white knight avoided the energy blast, and used his blade to parry a few that came too close. The knight moved to Dynasmon's side to avoid hitting the boy.

**_GREY SWORD!_**

Dynasmon guarded from the attack but the force sent him flying backwards over the water. It didn't do much damage but the dragon knight was visibly tired. "Damn Abominations." Dynasmon swore. "Band together all you want, all of them will be eradicated in the end." Then the dragon knight flew away into the distance.

The white knight looked down at the small kid. He could see the boy looking at him with observant eyes that were filled with a mixture of emotions. Fear, wonder, despair, hope. "I'm Taiko." The boy said simply. The knight could hear that he was on the verge of tears.

"Omnimon X." The knight replied. Taiko acknowledged the knight and sat on the scarred ground, holding the two flash drives. "May I see that?"

The boy looked at him again and reluctantly handed the knight one of the drives, the WarGreymon. Omnimon X looked at the chip, tiny in his large hand. A small light flickered from it, and a beam of blue light shimmered from the knight's arm to the kid's arm, linking the two together. Then it faded, and a round device rested on Taiko's arm.

Another moment of silence passed. "Does this mean you're my partner?" Taiko asked. Omnimon X shook his head.

"I do not feel any link between the device and myself. I am sorry."

It was then when the boy started to cry, the knight sighed and sat next to him. The two of them remained in that spot for a while, with nothing urgent to do and nowhere to go. They sat and watched as the knights spread their terror. The only sounds that could be heard were sobs and tears of a young child as the world came to its end.

* * *

Alright, this story is almost done... I think. Thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed it so far.

'Till next time,

453


End file.
